Windows XP was introduced in 2001, and was replaced by Windows Vista in 2007. I have been known to say that Windows XP plus Office 2003 did everything I could ever want to do with a computer, but is that true? XP gave me fits with PDF files, and also had a nasty habit of "hanging" when it shut down.

Most of what I do on computers now is on the Internet, and I'm not sure how well and how safely Windows XP works with the Internet nowadays. Yes, I can get it to work fairly well with a Google Chrome browser, but other browsers bog down. And antivirus software also seems to slow down XP computers.

I do volunteer work at a women's center in Sacramento, and I've rebuilt many XP computers and given them to our guests. I've stopped taking donations of XP computers, and I'm about ready to do the same for Windows Vista computers. It's just too much work to restore them to "like new" condition, and they're still sluggish. I use Ubuntu Linux to add a little time to old XP computers, but a lot of people are afraid to use Linux because they're not familiar with it. So far, I have not been able to give away any Ubuntu computers, but I HAVE been able to force staff members to use it (or do without a computer). I donate all the computers our staff uses, so I have a fair amount of control. I'm very popular now, because nobody has a computer with an operating system older than Windows 7. Our interns are using a Win Vista computer, but that computer will retire next week. I do quite well with $350 computers.

So, I'm afraid XP has reached the end of the road. Will Windows 7 follow the XP pattern and continue popularity through the lifetime of the less-popular Windows 8?

-Joe-